When we think of the Holy Canons of the Church, we most often think of them as ‘laws’ to be followed. They should be followed but not because they are laws. In the story of the women bent over for eighteen years, Christ reveals the true purpose of the Law. Following the laws and Canons of the Church frees us from the burden of sin. When we allow the Holy Canons to change our hearts, we change the way we think of Christ and the Church. Fast, but not because it is the law. Fast to change your heart. Fast to be free from sin.
My brothers and sisters, we just heard a story about a woman that was healed by Christ and unfortunately for the crowd that was watching, she was healed on the Sabbath. And so the crowd turns to Jesus and the elites turn to the crowd and start to rebuke Christ. “There are six days to work,” they say. We’re not supposed to do these things on the Sabbath.” Now, we hear the story and we hear Christ remind us that it’s not about following the law that was important. It was that the people did not allow the law to change their hearts. They were willing to break the law to feed their animals, but not to help this woman who for 18 years suffered with a demon. And so Christ turns to her and he releases her from her burden.
Now, I have a bad back. You sometimes see me shuffling through the church. I can’t imagine what it’s like going 18 years bent over and not being able to look up to God in heaven. Imagine not just the physical pain of this woman, but the emotional burden she must have felt not being able to look up to God being forced to stare at the ground for 18 years. And so God takes her as an example for us and he releases her of this burden. But the story doesn’t end with this woman. The story ends in our hearts. If we treat the canons of the church like the Jews treated the law, we will find ourselves angry with God. We will find ourselves indignant that God would dare to save these other lowlifes and we are the ones who keep all the rules. Remember, before Lent we talk about the Pharisee. Keeping all the rules, my brothers and sisters, is not what the Orthodox life is about. But don’t get confused. It’s not the rules that are bad. It’s our hearts.
Yes, we should be fasting for Christmas. We should fast to the greatest of our ability to prepare ourselves to receive the greatest gift of Christ at Christmas. This particular fast, most of us either laugh off, don’t even try, or worse, we simply say it’s too difficult because of there’s too many parties. And so we don’t even try to fast. And then we hear this Gospel. “Now I have an excuse.” Don’t misunderstand the Gospel. It isn’t the law that is bad. It is our hearts. And so we have to allow the laws of the church to free our hearts from the oppression of the devil. We, my brothers and sisters, are chained down by our desires. The devil has chained us to wealth, to prestige, to having three, four, five houses, extra cars, extra this, extra that. We are tied down to these things and it weighs us down and we can’t even look up to God. But today, we can be freed from that.
Today, we can hear this morning’s Gospel and we can immediately free ourselves from the demons that weigh us down. And it begins by allowing the laws of the church, the canons of the church to change us, to soften our hearts, to teach us how to love God more than ourselves, to teach us how to treat others with greater love than ourselves, but at the bare minimum, treating other human beings as greater than animals. The Jews couldn’t even do this one little thing. But I’m afraid we are in the same boat. We look at each other with only the bare minimum necessary compassion. One of the expressions that I absolutely despise, “God helps those who help themselves, Father.” God helps those who cannot help themselves and he does it through us.
Let’s at least show that kind of love and compassion to our fellow human beings and let’s allow the traditions of our church, let’s allow the life of prayer and fasting and the sacraments and taking care of the poor to free us like it freed the woman from 18 years of bondage to the demons. Believe me when I tell you this, if you start today and you begin in prayer and fasting and focusing your soul to prepare for Christmas, believe me when I say you will experience Christmas Day like you’ve never experienced it before. Most of us get to Christmas and we are exhausted with Christmas. We don’t want to see another Christmas tree. We don’t want to sing another Christmas carol.
In some places, even on Christmas day, the Christmas tree is out on the curb for the garbage because we have spent weeks partying instead of preparing. But all that can change if we allow the traditions of our church, the holy canons, and the laws of our church to free us from all of that. But it takes a little courage. But trust me, God can help us because we can’t help ourselves. Glory to God for all things.
